GREENSBORO — Recent Woods Charter graduate Luka Noronha will be representing Chatham County and the men’s East All-Star soccer team next Tuesday in Greensboro at the 2019 East-West All-Star game.
Noronha helped guide Woods Charter to a 12-8 record last fall including a trip to the third round of the NCHSAA 1A State Playoffs.
The men’s game will take place at MacPherson Stadium at 8:30 p.m. immediately following the girl’s contest, which gets under way at 6:30 p.m.
Men’s and women’s soccer were added to All-Star Week in 1992. Legendary coaches Bob Catapano, Zack Osborne and Herk DeGraw were featured that year. Matches have been played at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In 2015, renovations there necessitated a move to MacPherson Stadium, home of the professional Carolina Dynamo. On six occasions, five or more goals have been scored in a match.
Most player participants have gone on to compete in college and several have played professionally. As with football and basketball, these games are a great showcase for the best players, coaches and officials in the state of North Carolina.
Men’s and women’s basketball games will take place at the Greensboro Coliseum on Monday, with the women getting things started at 6:30 p.m. and the men tipping off at 8:30 p.m.
The first East-West All-Star Basketball Game was played in 1949 at Guilford College’s Alumni Gym which seated almost 900 fans. The game site moved around for a few years until the 4,500-seat gym at what is now Grimsley High School opened in 1954. The All-Star game was the first game played in that gym. The first basket scored in competition was by the East’s Charlie Adams, who for many years served as the executive director of the NC High School Athletic Association.
When the Greensboro Coliseum opened in 1960, the game moved there. The coliseum has been the site for the 1974 NCAA finals, many ACC Men’s and Women’s Tournaments and NCAA Regional games. The first women’s East-West All-Star Game was in 1975.
All-Star week will once again be capped off by the always highly anticipated East-West Football Game at Jamieson Stadium on the campus of Grimsley High School. That contest begins at 8 p.m. and includes a large fireworks show at halftime.
The first East-West All-Star Football Game was played in 1949. Coach Bob Jamieson, the director of the NCCA, received the keys to the stadium from the contractor at 4 p.m. the day of the game. Coach Jamieson then went onto the field at his school and coached the West team against the East’s Leon Brogden, Wilmington’s legendary coach. The football game has featured hundreds of future NCAA Division I stars and many of the boys who have suited up have gone on to successful careers in the NFL. More than 3,400 North Carolina boys have had the chance to wear the royal of the East or the scarlet of the West in this wonderful rivalry.
The East-West All-Star Games have lived up to their billing of seeing tomorrow’s stars today, as many former all-star players wear NCAA National Championship rings, Super Bowl rings and NBA Championship rings, or have participated in soccer’s World Cup.